There are currently around 1.13 million privately owned weapons in Bavaria. This emerges from the figures for the national weapons register for the Free State published by the Federal Office of Administration. As of December 31, 2023, these are distributed among 204,996 people registered in Bavaria. In a nationwide comparison, more than one in five weapons is registered in Bavaria. Even in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the numbers are significantly lower than in Bavaria, with 158,603 private owners and 853,722 weapons.
The statistics also contain almost 580,000 so-called weapons law permits that are assigned to people with an address in Bavaria – this is almost exactly 10,000 more than at the end of 2022 (569,528). These include firearms licenses and shooting permits. The database also shows a significant increase in small gun licenses: there are 122,342 (end of 2022) and 129,078 (end of 2023). Legally, a person can have multiple permits.
Now that the weapons register database has been cleaned up, the 2023 numbers cannot currently be compared with the values given for 2022. For the end of 2022, only around 1,000 more weapons are recorded in the statistics; the figure for gun owners is 206,541.
Nationwide, statistics for the end of last year show 5.02 million weapons, 941,697 private gun owners and 2.95 million gun permits. The number of small firearms licenses is given as 833,870.
Both politically and socially, gun law regulations are a point of contention and are repeatedly discussed controversially, for example after amok attacks. Last year, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) announced that in the future, psychological suitability should be checked when applying for a gun ownership card. Within the federal government, however, the FDP rejects tightening gun laws.